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Combat Primer
This is a step-by-step guide to combat in Whispers in the Dark. This will include various maneuvers and combat abilities, but, in general, will be intended to be a non-venue specific walkthrough. Combat Round Example The combat order will go in the order of the names listed in the room. ST/Admin NPCs always go last unless they have some power to go first or get the drop on the players. Any STs/Admins playing IC go at their place in the order alphabetically. Attack First declare your action and any powers you are using. Vampires declare any blood they are spending, werewolves any rage, etc. Please do this descriptively, but reasonably. Once this is posted, or while you are writing it, use the Die Roller to determine success or failure in general. It is up to you whether you do it before or after posting, however, if you fail in the attack, it may make more sense to simply incorporate the failure into the description. Whether the dice are rolled in the same channel as the combat or in another channel is up to the storyteller of the scene, but please make sure the ST is aware of where it is being rolled. Alice the Assamite gets the drop on her foe, in this case literally as she drops from her concealment above the door. Taking advantage of her fall, she uses the momentum to aid her strike to the blood hunted Billy the Brujah, drawing her blade across his back, aided with the power of her Blood. At this point, it is also helpful to make an addendum or secondary post describing (mechanically) what you're doing. ((Attacking with my longsword and spending one blood point to increase dex, another to increase strength. Rolling Dexterity + melee for the attack and I have a specialization in longswords.)) This way, STs and other players know what it is you're doing. !sdice 8 6 Attacking Billy the Brujah * @Shammie rolls 8 dice at difficulty 6 for Alice Attacking Billy the Brujah <@Shammie> 9 , 2 , 10 , 4 , 2 , 1 , 3 , 8 ReRolling 10's = 8 <@Shammie> You rolled 4 successes and 1 failures, resulting in 3 total successes So, out of her 8 dice, Alice nets three successes. Now, on to the defender. Defense Of course, Billy the Brujah doesn't want to get hit. Most people don't. However, if he tries to dodge now, he'll either have to split his dice pools, give up his opportunity to attack or use a celerity action. Alice thinks she got the drop on him, however, Billy managed to notice her shadow on the floor and allowed her the drop, but he is aware of the attack, so has a chance to defend himself. As this is the first chance Billy has to act, he announces he is using Celerity this round and attempting to dodge. ((Activating Celerity 2, using my first action to dodge)) Billy the Brujah waits until the last possible moment before rolling to the side, hoping to mitigate or nullify the attack by his attacker. And now, rolls dice to determine the result of his dodging !dice 6 6 Dex + Dodge * @Shammie rolls 6 dice at difficulty 6 for Billy Dex + Dodge <@Shammie> 5 , 10 , 1 , 9 , 1 , 9 <@Shammie> You rolled 3 successes and 2 failures, resulting in 1 total successes Note that, since Billy doesn't have an appropriate specialization, he does not reroll 10s. Total, he netted one success, which mitigates one dice of Alice's attack, leaving her with two successes, which, unfortunately for him, means she still hits. Damage Alice still has at least one success from her attack, meaning she hits Billy, so now we have to sort out damage. Most attacks work out damage as: Extra successes + Base weapon damage + Other modifiers. As this was a melee attack, Alice adds her strength to the attack, and since it was a sword, the damage is lethal. So, for her attack, the damage is: 1 (the first success is used for the strike, and she had one extra success beyond that) + 2 (base damage of a long sword) + 4 (strength) = 7 dice. !dice 7 6 Damage to Billy * @Shammie rolls 7 dice at difficulty 6 for Alice Damage to Billy <@Shammie> 9 , 6 , 9 , 2 , 1 , 6 , 6 <@Shammie> You rolled 5 successes and 1 failures, resulting in 4 total successes Which means Billy is looking at 4 lethal damage at the moment. Poor Billy Soak Fortunately, Billy is a vampire, so can soak Lethal damage with his Stamina. Soak is based on: Attribute + Armor + Special Abilities/Powers. In Billy's case, he has: Stamina 4 + 1 (his beat up leather jacket). !Dice 5 6 Trying to soak! * @Shammie rolls 5 dice at difficulty 6 for Billy Trying to soak! <@Shammie> 6 , 8 , 7 , 8 , 4 <@Shammie> You rolled 4 successes and 0 failures, resulting in 4 total successes Billy rolls extremely well and manages to soak all four points of damage, meaning he takes no damage from the attack. Had he only managed 2 successes, he would have taken two lethal health levels of damage! However, Billy goes next and has two celerity actions to hit Alice with. Unfortunately, Alice doesn't have any more actions do defend with, so can only take the blows as they come or split her next actions dice pools. Details and Specifics of Combat Dice Mechanics This covers the mechanics of what the dice roller does when you run it, so you can understand what the results mean: *Most of the time, you won't have an applicable Specialization, so will use the basic dice rolling rules: **Roll 1d10 for each dot of applicable ability (ie. Dex + melee of 3 and 4 would roll 7 dice) **For each die at or above the difficulty, it is counted as a success (default difficulty of 6, higher numbers for harder tasks, lower for easier) **Subtract one success for each one rolled on the dice **If you end up with any 1's and no successes, it is counted as a botch. If you have more 1's than successes, it is a failure. If you have more successes than 1's, you succeed. More net successes equate to better performance. *If you have an appropriate specialization, 10's are rerolled **Rerolled 10's that come up as 1's do not count against main successes **Rerolled 10's that come up as 10's do not continue to reroll Splitting Pools This is one of the more advanced concepts/methods of the game mechanics. It isn't critical to understand, but it can change combat dramatically. #Determine how many actions you are taking first (movement, dodge, attacks) #Subtract the total number of actions being taken from the die pool of your first action #Increment by one for each additional action beyond For example, if you want to move more than half your movement and then attack someone, you will be taking two actions. The first action (moving) doesn't require a roll, but you would subtract two from the dice pool. Effectively, acting as if your dexterity were two lower for determining movement. The attack, as the second action, increments the penalty by one, subtracting three dice from your attack. If one were to split for a third action, they would subtract three dice from the first action, four for the second, five for the third and so on. Movement *Walking speed: 7 yards/turn *Jogging speed: 12 + Dexterity yards/turn *Running speed: 20 + (3 * Dexterity) yards/turn *Swimming speed: 5 yards/turn *Climbing: Dex + Athletics, 5 feet/success for hard climb, 10 feet/success for normal and 15 feet/success for an easy climb *Jumping: Strength for standing jump, strength + athletics for running jump, difficulty is 3, each success carries you 2 feet vertically or 4 feet horizontally *Injury effects movement *One may move up to half their movement and act without penalty *One may act and move at the same time, however, each yard moved in this way subtracts one dice *Moving more than half your speed in a turn and acting requires either extra actions from powers or splitting dice pools as explained above Attack *Mundane attack methods all involve an Attribute + Ability roll. This includes: **Dexterity + Melee for hand held, hand to hand weapons (swords, knives, staves, etc) **Dexterity + Brawl for hand to hand unarmed combat (Martial arts, street fighting, claws, etc) **Dexterity + Firearms for ranged weapons (Pistols, rifles, shotguns, etc) **Dexterity + Athletics for thrown/manual ranged weapons (throwing knives, archery, darts, etc) *Supernatural attacks should list what their dice pool is or what needs to be rolled with the power. *There are a number of things that can modify attacking **Environmental effects that make it harder to hit **Small or large targets **Multiple opponents **Special powers in effect *You can also use special Maneuvers, covered later, but this covers things like called shots or grappling/clinching Defense Soak Health Powers Maneuvers Actions Weapons